You have a new website — Now What?

12 December, 2017 -
Article

A new website? Wow that is a huge thing! Right? But with great things, comes great responsibilities; and those might, at times, seem overwhelming. Sometimes you might be lost as to what to do next. Let’s help you with some perspectives.

The task of building a website is a lot in itself. The ordeal is a long and strenuous one. It starts with hiring a good web designer and planning and making improvements till you have the website of your dreams.

However, once it is launched, you might find yourself thinking about what needs to be done next. Let us help you answer this question.

The next steps will include ways to enhance your presence across the web by reaching out to more of your target audience. It cannot be a single process or step; various methods need to be employed for your website to become a popular and successful one.

You would definitely not want to be the only person visiting your own website. Some of the many ways of improving site visibility are as follows:

Set Up Google Analytics

Google Analytics helps you understand which pages get the most visits, keywords relevant to your website that are most searched along with other factors that improve the visibility of a website. This is similar to the way a business owner uses customer data to figure out the popular products.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This needs to be done even before your website goes live. Once the website is launched, make sure that you review the site once more to see if it has been optimized for search or not.

If not, just review the URLs, headers, titles, and content to see if they are aligned with targeted keywords.

Inbound links need to be paid attention to as well. These can bring in great dividends over time. For example, if you sponsor a local group so that another business can get their services, then add links to these groups.

Keep in mind that SEO is now an ongoing process and simply targeting for keywords is not going to help, if you want your website to perform.

Blogging

When you set up a website you must have a clear idea of what it is going to be about. If you expect people to come to your website, you need to know what information are you going to provide. Even if you are selling a product, blogging will help you become an authority in your industry. Not only is it great for SEO (as mentioned earlier), it builds invaluable credibility for your brand.

If your website comes across as lifeless or inattentive then they will look for other avenues and move away. Take it this way: Would you like to talk to a salesperson at a store or supermarket who is in one corner seeming that they would rather continue doing their job rather than talk to you? The answer is obviously no. So, do not be that salesperson. Blogging is an innovative way to interact with your website audience.

Blogging is an art that needs to be mastered as you should not come across as someone only interested in selling their brand. For example, if your website features a line of clothes then the blog should contain an article about the various types of clothes. However, you should never forget to mention casually that some great options can be found on your website as well.

Another important factor is that a dead blog can affect your website adversely. So try blogging only if you are completely committed to it.

Social Media

Social Media is a great platform that can give your website a boost. After blogging and having innovative content on your website, this is surely going to give your website the visibility it needs.

Here is an example of how to put social media to good use:

Suppose your website is based on plant nursery, go ahead and subscribe to the Facebook discussions and Twitter feeds on gardening, landscaping or other such related topics.

Do not bluntly advertise your website as that might be seen in negative light.

Do it intelligently. Be active and participate in various discussions as soon as you see a relevant discussion share your website’s content and link so that you come across as a contributing member and not a business owner.

Try to Turn Visitors into Newsletter Subscribers

People will find more interest if you can provide content that is not only informative but helpful as well. A weekly or bi-weekly newsletter that can be sent via email would be a good platform to provide it.

Email might seem to be an outdated form of interaction compared to modern social platforms but believe us when we say that email marketing is still one of the best forms of online marketing. Statistics say, every dollar a business spends on email marketing brings back returns of $38, which is far better than any other channel.

While you set up the newsletter subscribe option, do not forget to provide an unsubscribe option as well. For example, in the USA, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 has made the presence of an unsubscribe option compulsory with email based subscriptions.

Take Advantage of the Reviews from Existing Customers to Enhance the Visibility of your Site

Yelp might seem like a lot of trouble but it is a necessary evil. Reviews can play a significant role in improving the visibility of your site.

Other major review sites include Facebook, Google, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, YP, and many others that are related to specific industries. Fabulous reviews can generate a lot of attention for your site. It is similar to what you would call “positive word of mouth”. These sites use tags on their websites which allow Google to reveal the ratings directly through their search results.

Suppose you search for “creative California yelp,” you will find that a five gold star rating under the link of the Yelp page. This is a good way to stand out in a list of similar sites.

Thinking about getting a good review by paying a bribe? Bad idea. This will violate terms of service of any and every review site. If you are genuinely committed to providing value to your customers, gentle reminders about leaving a positive review should do the job.

Once you have done all of the above, then you have just started to get word around of your website. As word starts to get around various opportunities will start to pop up for expanding the business. Do not hurry! Take your time to understand each opportunity and see whether it will stand the test of time.

If you see that the opportunity has great potential then waste no time, grab it. With this, you will see your website start to grow and reach its full potential.

Conclusion:

Building a new website is actually just the first step. Making sure that it stays around for a long time with a huge inflow of visitors will take a lot of hard work.

Having said that, try to incorporate all of the above discussed methods as a way to take care and improve your website. If you can do so successfully, then in a matter of a few weeks or months, word of your website will reach far and wide.